The Voters Have Spoken: Sessions wins primary

Okay, all you Republican complainers, we Sessions Watchers don't want to hear any more tales of woe about how you wish someone would vote against the corrupt, hypocritical Pete Sessions; if only, you've told us, someone would run in the primary, you'd vote for "the other guy."

Well, this year, you had a choice, but at this writing, with 36 of 188 precincts reporting, Pete Sessions is on the way towards easily winning this one, with 84% of the vote so far.

Still, David Smith's 15% is a very good showing for a newcomer to this race.

Voter turnout was low; in Sessions' own precinct, Precinct 2222, for instance, only 110 people showed up to vote, and ten of them voted for David Smith. Not bad at all.

So Sessions lives on to fight in the general election against Libertarian John Jay Myers and Democrat Grier Raggio, and all you GOPers who say you want Sessions out have one more chance to get it right.

UPDATE: With 100% Reporting, the final numbers are:
David Smith (REP) 16.28%, 5,930 votes
Pete Sessions (REP) 83.72%, 30,492 votes
Total # of votes: 36,422

In the Democratic primary, Grier Raggio, running unopposed, won 7,460 votes.

Voter turnout: Democrats--5.01%, Republicans--8.63 %

Not bad for a primary, but it sure would be nice to see voter turnout in double digits, at least.

Dallas Morning News endorses Pete Sessions

No big surprise here, but the Dallas Morning News gave Pete Sessions their endorsement in the March GOP primary. Yesterday, when Sharon Grigsby announced on her blog that the endorsement would be in today's paper, one of our Sessions Watch readers posted this snarky note on her blog offering to do it for them:

I'll help write your endorsement of Pete Sessions:

"We wish Pete Sessions weren't so corrupt, we wish he cared more about the constituents he represents, we wish he'd give us a straight answer on questions instead of roundabout non-answers; in fact, we wish he was a totally different person. But we can't give the endorsement to a totally different person, we have to give it to Pete Sessions, 'cause we just like him. Don't ask us why, we just do! We really, really like him!"

C'mon, editorial board. Prove me wrong.

The endorsement wasn't quite as obviously sycophantic as that, just your standard "power of incumbency" nod, saying that Sessions is a better choice because he's been there longer, and the other guy just doesn't have the experience!

But they overlook the fact that he's not much of a leader in Congress. According to GovTrack, "Sessions is a follower according to our statistical analysis of bills in this legislative session. Sessions tends to cosponsors the bills of other Members of Congress who do not cosponsor Sessions’s own bills...Peter Sessions has sponsored 81 bills since Jan 7, 1997 of which 70 haven't made it out of committee and 2 were successfully enacted."

And the Dallas Morning News actually had the nerve to slam challenger David Smith for being partisan--after Pete Sessions said the GOP should use the Taliban as "model for insurgency. The Taliban! Not only is Sessions a hyper-partisan who can't work across party lines--or even with members of his own party--to get bills passed, he can't even find any "good guys" to identify with, he'd rather side with the enemy! Pete Sessions is one of the reasons Washington has turned into such a toxic hyper-partisan cesspool.

At best, we hoped for a "no endorsement" from Dallas Morning News, thinking the paper might follow the lead of all the Republican organizations that have refused to endorse Pete Sessions this time around. But there you have it, another endorsement from Dallas Morning News for Pete Sessions. No surprise there.

Pete Sessions parks in fire lane for endorsement interview!

Actually, it was his assistant Emily Davis who parked in the fire lane at the Dallas Morning News, since she drove him to the interview and was there to comb his hair before he met the editors--as reported by David Smith, who reviewed the interview process on his blog: Review: Dallas Morning News Editorial Board endorsement interview.

But, seriously, isn't that just typical of Pete Sessions, allowing his assistant to park in a fire lane, assuming everybody else's rules don't apply to him?

To the Sessions Watchers who've been badgering the Dallas Morning News over the past few days, asking the editorial board if they're planning on ignoring this race, you can stop now. They actually did an endorsement interview, so they should be making their decision in a few days.

From past experience with Dallas Morning News, we expect something along the lines of their half-hearted endorsement of Pete Sessions over Will Pryor in 2006, in which the editorial board had a litany of "wishes" that Pete Sessions would be a totally different person, but endorsed him anyway.

At Sessions Watch, we have our own set of "wishes" for the Dallas Morning News in their coverage of Pete Sessions, starting with our wish that they would comment in print on his inability to give a straight answer to anything.

In debates, when Pete Sessions is speaking to a bipartisan group that isn't packed with his supporters, his roundabout answers actually get laughs from the crowd. So why does the Dallas Morning News constantly give him passes on his obvious lack of knowledge on the issues?

According to David Smith, Sessions performed as we've come to expect him to in the interview:

And to be honest, I'm not sure that Rep. Sessions answered a single question he was asked! He used words like "leadership" and "reducing spending," even referring to my bringing up the Allen Stanford affair as--I have to make sure to get this right--I LOVED this term!--"a political characterization by a political opponent." Totally blew off the issue....

Readers of Sessions Watch may not agree with everything David Smith proposes, but at least he would be able to conduct an honest debate, using actual facts to back up his ideas instead of throwing the word "freedom" around for a cheap applause line.

C'mon, TX-32 Republicans, you've been campaigning for a GOP primary challenger since you first got stuck with Sessions back in 2004. Vote now, or forever hold your peace.

Early Voting Starts Today!

It is not the policy of Sessions Watch to endorse candidates, but then again, we've never had anyone run against Pete Sessions in the GOP primary before. So you know what to do, Republicans. You've been telling us for years that you'd vote for anyone who ran against Pete Sessions, so here's your chance to put your vote where your mouth is and vote for "the other guy," David Smith.

It's easy--just vote for the very first name you see on your ballot! David Smith is listed before Pete Sessions; not only that, but he's the very first name on the ballot, since Congressional races are listed before the Governor's race.

The GOP ballot is available at this link from Dallas County Elections: Republican Party Primary Election.

For Democrats, it's the same easy vote; Grier Raggio is listed first on the ballot, no opponents, before the list of candidates for Governor. The Democratic Party ballot is available at Democratic Party Primary Election.

David Smith's congressional campaign website is at this link: David Smith for Congress and his blog is here: David Smith for Congress blog.

Grier Raggio's congressional campaign website is at this link: Raggio for Congress.

Early voting runs Tuesday through Friday, February 16, 2010 - February 19, 2010 8:00 A.M. - 5:00 P.M.; Saturday, February 20, 2010, Sunday, February 21 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m., then again the next week, Monday-Friday February 22 - February 26, 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.